Thread: Greetings!

Here's my story, as concisely as I can tell it.

I was about nine years old when I had my first lucid dream. I was climbing in and out of my bedroom window (which I had done in waking life) when, apropos of nothing, I suddenly knew I was dreaming. I probably had more of them as I grew up, but that's the only one I recall from childhood. In my 30s I read the LaBerge book, and started having them again, but I must have lost interest. Since then, they have continued to come very sporadically.

A couple of mornings ago, I had one in which I walked out of a building. I became lucid, for no apparent reason, as I recall nothing out of the ordinary in the scene. I started touching the brick exterior of the building, feeling the texture of the surface. I find that this kind of sensory feedback helps pull me into the experience. Then I explored the surrounding area, and saw houses that were brightly decorated. The decorations did not appear to be connected to any holiday. There were autumn leaves on the ground, and I picked a few up and crumpled them between my fingers. Again with the sensory thing. It was all very pleasant. I thought, "my brain is creating this based on its catalog of experienced textures, shapes, colors, etc. Way cool!"

Last night I bought the LaBerge book for my iPad's Kindle app, and started rereading it. This morning I had two more LDs. On both mornings I had awakened several hours before I had any reason to get up (something that happens more and more as I near the end of my 50s), read for a while, and then gone back to sleep. This seems to be an optimal set of circumstances for me, not only for lucid dreams, but for exceptionally vivid non-lucid ones.

While the thought of being director/producer of the dreams is intriguing, my immediate desire is to see what I can learn from them, what sort of guidance and wisdom I can glean. I'm still a beginner where technique is concerned. I am motivated, in a way I might not have been when I was younger, to see how/if this tool can lead to growth.

So thereya go. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!